Did San Jose City Council hopeful violate nonprofit’s bylaws?

San Jose City Council candidate Joshua Barousse, who’s running to succeed Vice Mayor Rose Herrera in District 8, is getting heat for his role in a nonprofit community group.

Barousse for the past 7 years has been involved with the District 8 Community Round Table, a neighborhood advocacy association, recently serving as its vice president. But the group’s bylaws prohibit anyone running for public office to serve as president or vice president.

What’s the big deal? It’s a conflict of interest because the organization — which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — hosts election-related events, including a D8 candidate forum on April 7. Barousse, whose twin brother also serves on the group’s “steering committee,” quickly shuffled out of the VP role.

He told IA he ditched the vice president seat (he’s now the treasurer) in January. But campaign records show Barousse filed to run for office in October and launched a campaign Facebook page the following month — raising questions about whether he violated the nonprofit’s bylaws. He says he wasn’t an “official candidate” until March when his signatures were verified.

Barousse, who was an aide to Councilman Ash Kalra, isn’t the only council hopeful on the group’s leadership board: Pat Waite is a member-at-large. But Barousse maintains that neither he, his brother or Waite were involved with writing questions for the upcoming forum.

“I see where they’re coming from,” said Barousse, who just won the endorsement of the South Bay Labor Council. “That’s why all three of us are recusing ourselves from formulating questions. We made it a point.”